Jury Service

Alameda County jury service begins with a court summons, but the summons alone does not tell you whether to appear on a particular day. This article explains how to respond, complete the juror questionnaire, follow reporting instructions, request a postponement or hardship excusal, and prepare for a day at court. It also covers eligibility, transportation reimbursement, disability accommodations, and the responsibilities of jurors selected for a trial.

Who Handles Alameda County Jury Service?

The Superior Court of California, County of Alameda administers jury service through its Jury Services unit. Jury service supports both criminal and civil trials. Questions about a summons, reporting assignment, postponement, or hardship request belong with the court’s jury services office.

The court’s official Jury Service page provides instructions for summoned jurors and explains the available reporting and request systems. JPORTAL is the court’s juror portal for completing the questionnaire, reviewing reporting information, and submitting certain requests. The Jury Reporting Instructions page provides group-based directions for the applicable service week.

Your Summons and Reporting Week

Read your summons and identify your reporting week before making arrangements. Your group number matters because the court calls groups to report as needed. Instructions for another group or a different service week do not establish when you must appear.

One week before your service date, register through JPORTAL and complete your juror questionnaire. The portal also lets you sign up for text or email notifications and request an excusal or deferral. Keep your summons available when reviewing your assignment so you can match your reporting week and group number to the court’s instructions.

If you are employed, give your employer reasonable notice that you have been called for jury duty. The court states that employers cannot terminate an employee for being called to serve. Its explanation of California Labor Code Section 230(a) also addresses protection against discharge or discrimination for taking time off to serve when the employee gives reasonable notice before the absence.

When Reporting Instructions Become Available

Check your reporting instructions after 5 p.m. on the Friday before your summons date and every night during your summons week. You may review the court’s Jury Duty Reporting instructions, check JPORTAL, or call the court’s Interactive Voice Response line.

Only appear when instructed to report. If your group is not requested to appear the next business day, continue your normal activities and check again after 5 p.m. A direction to return for further instructions is not a direction to travel to a courthouse.

Read the entire instruction for your group, including the date, time, and location. The reporting page identifies the service week to which its directions apply. It also distinguishes new jurors from people who have already attended jury service that week, either in person or online. If you have already attended, follow the directions applicable to your service rather than treating the new-juror group table as a new assignment.

Your Assigned Courthouse May Change

The court warns that reporting locations may change. Review the location in your reporting instructions each time you check, rather than relying on an earlier assignment. Jury reporting locations include:

East County Hall of Justice in Dublin.
Fremont Hall of Justice.
Hayward Hall of Justice.
René C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland.
Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in Oakland.

The reporting page offers location selections for parking and transportation instructions. Use the selection for your assigned courthouse when planning your trip. The court does not allow jurors to transfer their service to a different court location, so a more convenient courthouse is not a substitute for the one assigned.

Eligibility and Jury Selection Records

The court identifies several requirements for jury eligibility. A juror must be at least 18 years old, a United States citizen, and a resident of the county or district where summoned. The person must understand enough English to follow the proceedings and be physically and mentally capable of serving.

Additional eligibility conditions include not having served as any kind of juror during the previous 12 months and not being currently incarcerated in a prison or jail. A person must also not have a conviction for malfeasance in office for which civil rights have not been restored.

A felony conviction does not automatically prevent jury service. Under the eligibility rules described by the court, a person with a felony conviction may serve if the person is not on parole, post-release community supervision, felony probation, or mandated supervision for a felony conviction, and is not required to register as a sex offender under Penal Code Section 290.

Why You Received a Summons

Potential jurors are selected randomly using records from the Franchise Tax Board, voter registration records, and Department of Motor Vehicles driver’s license and identification card records. The court uses these sources to obtain a cross-section of the county’s population.

Differences in your name across these systems can lead to duplicate summonses or more frequent summonses. Examples include a missing middle initial or a former name that remains in one agency’s records. The court explains that its random selection system does not contain information such as Social Security numbers or dates of birth that would identify differently named records as the same person.

If you receive two summonses from the court, contact the court and explain the duplication. You must still report for one of the summonses. Correcting inconsistent names with the agencies maintaining the source records can address the underlying record differences. You may not send a spouse or another person to serve in your place.

Postponements and Hardship Excusals

A postponement changes when you serve; an excusal is a request to be excused from service. JPORTAL supports requests for both. Submitting a request does not automatically grant it, and the court cautions that many requests may not be granted until a judge considers them on the day of service.

If you have not already rescheduled your jury service once, you may request a different service week through JPORTAL or the Interactive Voice Response system. The court allows one rescheduling to a week three to six months after the current summons date.

For a hardship excusal, submit the request through JPORTAL. If the portal does not allow your request, contact the Jury Services Division for assistance or email jury@alameda.courts.ca.gov. Do not treat the act of submitting a request as confirmation that your reporting obligation has changed.

School Schedules and Vacation Plans

Full-time students and teachers may postpone jury service to serve during school breaks. This is a scheduling option; student or teacher status is not described as an automatic excusal.

The court also addresses prepaid, nonrefundable vacation plans within the next four to six weeks. For those circumstances, its instructions direct jurors to postpone service for up to six months. Review this option through the court’s request system before the trip conflicts with your assigned service.

Occupation-Based Exemptions

The court identifies only law enforcement officers defined in California Penal Code Sections 830.1 and 830.2(a) as statutorily exempt by occupation under Code of Civil Procedure Section 219. Other work obligations should not be treated as an automatic occupational exemption. A juror seeking relief for hardship should use the court’s hardship request process.

Disability Accommodations Before Service

Jurors may contact the court to request an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The court’s ADA Accommodations page provides a disability accommodation request form, an information sheet explaining how to request an accommodation, and the applicable court rule.

Make an accommodation request as far in advance as possible. The court specifies at least five court days before the date the accommodation is needed, although it may waive that timing requirement at its discretion. The ADA request contact email is ADA_Request@alameda.courts.ca.gov.

An accommodation request and a hardship excusal serve different purposes. The accommodation process concerns arrangements for participation, while the hardship process concerns a request to be excused. Direct the request to the court contact responsible for the assistance you are seeking.

Preparing for Your Reporting Day

If directed to report, plan for a full day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The actual release time depends on the court’s schedule. Your group’s reporting instructions may specify a particular arrival time, so use those instructions to determine when to arrive while reserving the day for service.

Dress as you would for a business meeting or a social function. Shorts, tank tops, and bare feet are not permitted. The court states that masks are not mandatory, but jurors may choose to wear one.

You may bring a book or newspaper to read while waiting for court to begin or during recesses. Reading is not appropriate while court is in session. Turn off cell phones and pagers while in the courtroom, and remain alert and courteous during proceedings.

Illness on the Reporting Date

If you are ill on the day you must report, have a fever, experience chills or shortness of breath, or have other symptoms associated with COVID-19, the court directs you not to come to court. Contact the Jury Services Division or email jury@alameda.courts.ca.gov to explain your condition and request a deferral.

This instruction includes contacting the court, not simply staying home. Explain that the illness affects the day you were directed to report so the office can address the service request.

Late Arrival or a Missed Summons

If you know you will be late, contact the jury commissioner’s office as soon as possible. If you have already been assigned to a courtroom, contact that courtroom’s clerk to explain the situation. A trial cannot proceed until everyone is present, and the court warns that a judge may impose a fine for lateness without a good excuse.

If you missed or forgot your summons date, contact the court immediately to reschedule. The reporting page also explains that jurors in groups already called who did not report as directed receive a failure to appear and are automatically rescheduled in approximately five months. That consequence does not replace the court’s instruction to contact it immediately after a missed date.

Transportation Reimbursement

The court’s reporting page states that mileage reimbursement for jurors using their own transportation covers travel both to and from the assigned courthouse. The stated rate is 34 cents per mile, calculated between the juror’s address and the assigned courthouse.

Public transportation reimbursement is available up to $12 per day. The court identifies a Public Transportation Reimbursement request form for BART or AC Transit, available at each jury reporting location. Ask for the form at your reporting location if you are seeking that reimbursement.

These transportation provisions are separate from reporting instructions. Reimbursement information does not determine which courthouse you attend or whether your group has been called; those decisions remain tied to your current assignment.

Jury Selection and the Trial

Reporting for service does not by itself mean you have been selected for a trial jury. The court’s Trial Process explanation describes how potential jurors are brought into a courtroom, questioned, and selected before the trial proceeds.

During selection, names are drawn for seats in the jury box. The judge identifies the parties, attorneys, and subject of the case. The judge and attorneys then question potential jurors to determine whether they can be fair and impartial. This questioning is called voir dire.

An attorney may ask the judge to excuse a potential juror for a specific legal reason, known as a challenge for cause. Attorneys also have a limited number of peremptory challenges. After the required number of jurors is selected, the court clerk swears in the panel.

Evidence, Instructions, and Deliberations

The trial generally includes opening statements, presentation of evidence, and closing statements. Evidence may include witness testimony and exhibits such as documents, photographs, charts, or diagrams. Attorneys may question the other side’s witnesses through cross-examination.

The judge then instructs the jury on its duties and the law that applies to the facts. Jurors deliberate in the jury room and choose a foreperson to lead the discussion. Each juror should participate. The court explains that a civil verdict requires agreement by three-fourths of the jurors, while a criminal verdict must be unanimous.

Deliberations may take hours or days. Once a verdict is reached, it is recorded on an official form and presented in court. The clerk reads the verdict, and jurors may be asked individually to confirm that it is their verdict.

Breaks and Changes During Proceedings

Waiting periods and breaks can occur while the judge handles other court matters or attorneys prepare witnesses and other parts of the case. Attorneys may also discuss legal issues with the judge outside the jury’s hearing.

Settlement negotiations can continue before or during a trial in both civil and criminal cases. If the parties reach a settlement that ends the trial, jurors are dismissed. Until then, follow the court’s directions about attendance and participation.

Restrictions on Case Discussions and Research

Do not discuss the case with anyone until you are discharged from the jury. The court directs jurors to communicate with the lawyers or judge through the bailiff. Discussion with other jurors about the case occurs during deliberations at the end of the trial.

If someone persists in discussing the trial with you or tries to influence your judgment, tell the bailiff. Outside discussions can expose a juror to information beyond the court record and can cause a mistrial.

You may not investigate the case yourself, either alone or with other jurors. This restriction includes internet research, conversations with witnesses, and independent experiments. Your verdict must rest only on evidence presented in court, where all sides can see and challenge it.

Jury Service Payment Scams

The Jury Services unit does not call residents to request payment for failing to appear for jury service. A caller demanding such a payment should not be treated as providing an authorized way to resolve a summons.

The court explains that California law does not allow someone to pay a fine instead of serving. Even if a fine is assessed, the person must still reschedule jury service. Resolve a missed summons through the court’s jury service process rather than accepting a caller’s claim that payment removes the obligation.

Jury Service Office Contacts

Jury Services Division
Phone: (510) 891-6031
Jury Services Office
Phone: (510) 879-3079
ADA Request Contact
Phone: (510) 891-6211

Jury Service FAQs

Does every trial have 12 jurors?

The Alameda County court’s jury selection explanation describes drawing 12 names unless the parties agree to a smaller jury. Being seated in the courtroom does not mean everyone present will sit in the jury box. Prospective jurors whose names are not drawn remain seated in the courtroom while selection proceeds. Follow the court’s directions about where to sit; your presence in the room and your placement on the trial jury are separate steps.

Why might the defense present no evidence?

The defense sometimes presents no evidence because it argues that the side bringing the case has not proved its case. The court’s trial guide specifically describes this possibility. A trial therefore does not always involve matching sets of witnesses or exhibits from both sides. Jurors should follow the judge’s instructions about the applicable law and evaluate the evidence presented, rather than expect each attorney to offer the same amount of material.

Who handles exhibits and the courtroom record?

The court clerk compiles official files and exhibits and maintains records of the proceedings. The court reporter records the legal proceedings for the official record. These are separate responsibilities. The court attendant maintains courtroom order and has custody of the jury. Understanding these roles can help you follow courtroom directions and recognize who is performing each task during your service.

Where can I direct jury service suggestions?

The court identifies the presiding judge or jury commissioner as the appropriate recipient for written suggestions about jury service. If you want to offer feedback about your experience, address your suggestions to one of those officials. The court’s jury service FAQs specifically identify these recipients for suggestions, giving jurors a clear route for sharing concerns or proposing improvements.